S IR HAROLD NICOL- SON'S life of Sainte- Beuve ("Sainte-Beuve," published by Doubleday) and Mr. David Magar- o - shack's lIfe of Gogol u," ("Gogol: A Life," pub- · lished by the Grove 7' Press) are excellent ex- amples of the two ways in which biog- raphy, like history, can be written. One says, as it were, "There was a man called Sainte-Beuve in whom I am interested Let me tell you about him in the hope that you will find him as interesting as I do." The other says, "If you are curious about Gogol, the documented facts about his life are these." Each approach has, of course, its dangers. The impersonal biographer is at the mercy of his subject; there are very few people in whose lives there are no dull patches, so when his hero strikes one, his biography must become dull, for he is forbidden to enliven it with amusing digressions of his own. On the other hand, provIded his sen- tences are clear and grammatical, he can be criticized only on points of schol- arship; as long as he has not overlooked a significant document or mIstranslated one, he is immune. The personal-por- trait painter is much more exposed. He must be continually entertaining about his hero, and both hIS style and his judg- ments are always open to criticism. Moreover, while he must never be c ught out on a point of scholarship, he must not parade hIS learning; it is for him, not for his reader, to select from his mass of material what is essential and revealing. Sir Harold Nicolson's forte has al- ways been the comic and slightly mali- cious, whether it be asides: If he succeed [in becoming an Academi- cian], he may withdravv into self-satisfac- tion, becoming obese, unproductive and proud. quoted remarks: "She had a great soul," he vvrote of her in his notebook, "and a perfectly enormous bottom " or grotesque anecdotes: His material circumstances also under- vvent a change. In June of that year Louise Colet, the exacting, irrational, and most pathetic mistress of Victor Cousin and Flaubert, had been libelled in the Guêpes by Alphonse Karr. She decided to take revenge She called at Karr's flat; when BOOKS Talent, Genzus, and U nhappzness he opened the door to her and turned to lead the vvay to the sitting room she stabbed him in the back vvith a kitchen knife. Victor Cousin, who vvas at the time lVlinister of Education, feared a scandal would result and appealed to Sainte-Beuve to persuade Alphonse Karr to take the as- sault quietly. Sainte-Beuve's mission vvas successful and Karr contented himself by having the knife enclosed in a glass case \vith the inscription "Received from Louise Colet-in the back.' As a revvard for this service, as Karr maliciously con- tended, Victor Cousin appointed Sainte- Beuve Assistant Librarian at the Maza- rine Library vvith a flat in the Institute Building and a salary of 4,000 francs a year. In the end her [J ennv Delval',,] infidel- ity became intolerable and he turned her out of hIs house. . . . She \vas succeeded for a while by Celine Debauve, kno\vn as "La Nlanchotte," since she had lost one of her hands. She vvas so rude to his visitors that ... ...-...... .,{ " Æ } , i ' f.^./ > t ' . fl-" .. --t 1, ?- 1< > ./. : \. % I, \. t '),. s . u.. ' " t "...: . ',.: \ \1 ' "1 . .\ ( t; : J - .' !i: , ,. ."'>. >< k "*- ..' - ;. : - >. 0." 221 she was kept dovvnstairs. In the end, she also vvas sent back to the streets Sir Harold is less at his ease when he attempts the "beautifu]" or the serious. I agree with him that "Port-Royal" is a wonderful book, but his concluding sentence on this work would never make me think so: When they read Sainte-Beuve's "Port- Royal," they vvill enter upon a ne\v \vorld, become intimate with strange dissimilar minds and characters. discover that the ir- rational may be rendered a fascinating rather than an irritating mystery, linger in cool vvhite corridors, or observe how in the grey hour before the davvn the sound of bells tolling vvill hush the chatter of the frogs. His writing "I" is the tolerant, slightly cynJcal n1an of the world whom nothing shocks; when, therefore, he is \. ! j , . . , " " ...,p .;; . .. ',...' , "'-..- Å - --... /., ;f )' "" "'-t' b . . J .. " '.. "'<Ii<1#: "w t ",' t<+ )$s \'fr "*'- . :.:".i. . <^, ! "" J t """'" '* .. \ ......, .. c, Yv __ ø' "-. - 4 =-t@ ", ,"''''')" , """ . ..... ............ eel wonder what the- '58 Cadzllac looks lzke "